Sunday, February 8, 2009

A Little Bit in Love with Lykke Li

Thank you Sweden for giving us another one of your lovable imports aside from H&M and Ikea (I know, I know Sweden is known for so much more!). Sweden has made their mark on the music map with pop/indie/electronic/alternative singer Lykke (apparently pronounced Luk-kah) Li.

On Friday February 6th 2009 Lykke Li performed in front of hundreds at the Phoenix concert hall. I had the lucky opportunity to be 4 rows away from the stage and had a pretty good view thanks to my wonderful friend Angela for casually pushing her way through the crowd (and you can bet we had a few angry patrons lol! But this was all forgotten as soon as Lykke Li hit the stage). This is Lykke Li’s second time in Toronto but unfortunately I wasn’t able to go to her first show.

She puts on a fun, passionate, soulful and energetic show. I think only Lykke Li can put together a show where she incorporates the use of a kazoo, megaphone, mini portable electric piano, and bangs on the drum during her performance. I think she wanted to show the audience that she is more than just a pretty face and has all these wonderful little talents. The show had a very intimate feel complete with her cute Swedish band accompanying her. Lykke Li was moving and jumping around all over the stage with her signature arm moves and robotic dance style that I have become familiar with in her videos (See: I’m Good I’m Gone and Little Bit).

One of the highlights of the show was when she did a cover of Lil Wayne’s A Milli. The lyrics were hard to hear as the crowd was overcome with excitement and she went beat crazy on the drums. She also did a Kings of Leon song and gave her guests a special gift of singing us a song from her upcoming album. You can check out the video here:

I loved Lykke Li’s outfit but was wondering how she was dealing with the temperature. She wore a black tunic and this long black scarf with pleats and ruffles which can be seen in the photos, complete with black opaque stockings and Doc martins. I totally want that scarf!

Hearing her belt out her ballads including Little Bit, Tonight, Everybody but me sounded even better live. Her soft sweet voice adds an innocence to her music. It was almost rather haunting but enjoyable and I and the other Lykke fans couldn’t help but sing along and really try to feel the emotions and her wicked dance moves.

Despite the lack of energy some of the crowd possessed I must say I enjoyed her a lot. All in all it was a really good concert and made me appreciate Lykke Li “a little bit” more. I can’t wait to see her grow and evolve as an artist. For those of you who haven’t heard of Lykke Li you can check her out at: http://www.lykkeli.com/.

More photos after the jump! There would have been more videos but blogger takes forever to upload! If there's a faster way please let me know!